If you read through the game's backstory on the website, you'll discover that at some point right before the Cold War, Statesman was hit by a tactical nuclear missile while carrying hostages out of the USSR. The hostages died, obviously, but Statesman survived. Let me repeat that for emphasis: Statesman was hitby a tactical nuclear missileand lived to tell the tale. Good god.

How about the last mission of Viridian's Arc in COV? All that effort to invite a number of Archvillains to a conference ends up up with those present questioning the presence of resident Magnificent Bastard Nemesis. Of course immediately afterward (Mental imagery suggests that all eyes would be on Nemesis at this point) Longbow shows up to crash the party. Immediately one of the villains present asks how they found out. Nemesis is the first to reply. "Elementary. I TOLD THEM!" Nemmy's had a lot of moments, but this one sticks out in my mind. Especially funny is The Center's comment: "And this is why I never invite Nemesis to anything."

Lord Nemesis tricking you into thinking you are just one of his robots on the villain's side.

Another Nemesis CMOA - he has so many decoys, agents and schemes acting at a distance that, whenever the Prince of Brass shows up in person, you know things have gotten serious. In this case, facing off against the general of the Rikti invasion force. He has his high command, you have an NPC Ragtag Bunch of Misfits. Just as you reach the general himself, another raiding party appears behind you - led by Nemesis himself, here to finish you off. What's a player to do? Take down both armies at once, of course!

How is there no mention of Breakneck? Granted, the in-game rendition isn't quite as badass as the official tie-in comic's version, but you still have to admit that an elderly, out-of-shape ex-superhero with a heart condition breaking free of his chains and taking on one of the biggest bads in the game one-on-one is fairly bad-ass, even if he gets his ass handed to him and his heart fails as a result. Especially since he saves the world and buys you time to finish the job in the process.

The story arcs are generally well written, and give the player the sense that their hero or villain has done something to distinguish his/herself (Status Quo Is God not withstanding). However, one particular story arc comes to mind: at the end of an arc where the hero is successful in preventing a time traveler from shifting history, (s)he receives a congratulatory note from one of the established major villains of the setting. The letter further notes he is going to keep his eye on you and your career from this point on. If attracting a major villain's recognition of your exploits isn't awesome...

The first mission of the Mender Ramiel arc. The player steps into a shattered Ouroboros sunken in the ocean as lightning crashed in the background of a blood red apocalyptic sky. Between him and saving Mender Ramiel is about fifteen arch-villains at full power, some of them known incarnates, all of them nasty in-game, and one that even takes no less than twenty-four regular heroes to even have a shot to take down. What does the player's Future Badass version do? Effortlessly swat them aside.

There's a layer of Fridge Horror to that when you realize that even though you're THAT powerful, your future self still apparently need to resort to altering the past fix things, and its implied that despite everything you're looking at, Ouroboros is doing comparatively well to the REST OF REALITY.

The last part of the Cloning Facility arc in City Of Villians. You've spent all this time building the Facility only to find out it was an Evil Plan to make clones of you to destroy Primal Earth. What do you do? Kill everyone one in the facility up to and including Protean the man who killed Manticores parents. He then rigs the entire facility to blow so you spend the next three minutes walking through flames as it blows. When you get out and talk to your Contact you both know Protean isn't dead. So you instead decided to cripple him by draining his bank account.

Made all the better since it's the first redside arc that makes you feel like the contacts are working for you (even though the second one isn't) rather than you working for the contacts.

There's another section that's worthy of note. Just at the start of the second arc, you test the cloning equipment by taking on clones of yourself. The first few tries are zombies and werewolves. Then you fight clones of yourself. As many as you want. You get a badge if you somehow defeat eight of yourself.

The hero version of the Cloning arc is just as epic as the villain arc. Storming Protean's base with your good double and tearing your way through an entire building full of 5th Column goons? Awesome. Going toe-to-toe with Protean and giving him the beatdown he deserves for everything he's done to you? Satisfying. If only the ending wasn't such a Tear Jerker and a Player Punch...

The end of the tutorial Story Arc involving Twinshot and the Shining Stars. When you arrive in the base, it's already under attack by Praetorian Clockwork, lending credence to the theory that Twinshot is a Praetorian spy. But as you proceed through the base, you hear Twinshot arguing with the team's Smart Guy, Proton, and soon it becomes clear that he's been The Mole all along. And when you arrive in the final room, Twinshot and Proton have a confrontation, with both of their allies — including you on Twinshot's side, and the infamous Vigilante Maelstrom on Proton's side — standing shoulder to shoulder with each other. Just when it's clear that the confrontation will end in violence, everyone tosses out a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner to their rival, and then everything erupts into a complete melee between the Shining Stars and the Praetorian invaders. It's one of the most well-scripted and -executed story moments in the entire game, and it's incredible to see how the game's writing has evolved since the early days.

Having heard of the games cancellation on August 31, 2012, The response of the City of Heroes community being that of banding together to fight it in an attempt to save the game that they love. That is AWESOME.

Five days later, Atlas Park 33 still existed, with dozens of players still holding torches in front of City Hall, right up until the server was shut down for maintenance.

Three months later, on the eve of the game's shutdown, people still keep the spirit of City of Heroes alive, talking about it on social networks like Facebook and attempting to create Spiritual Successors in the form of Heroes and Villains and City of Titans and much later, Valiance Online and Ship of Heroes.

The Lost were a ragtag bunch of homeless in early game, trying to eke out survival and maybe make some room for themselves and led by their rare mutant members. After level 20, storyline reveals their mutant members aren't mutants at all, but proto-Rikti.

You're a Cruel One Mr Phipps is a mission in going rogue where you can play as either a Rogue (Villain becoming a Hero) or a Vigilante (Hero becoming a Villain); on the Rogue side you can save Phipp's victims and undo the damage he's done, including Mrs Francine. On the Vigilante side you can give Phipps a massive Beatdown and put him in the hospital.

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